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Changed line(s) 19 (click to see context) from:
* There was [[DeathOfAThousandCuts never one single]] CreatorKiller for Creator/TelltaleGames. Instead, according to [[https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/09/22/telltale-closure-the-walking-dead-minecraft-batman/ insider accounts,]] after their BreakthroughHit with ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSeasonOne'', every game they made with the exception of ''VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode'' lost the studio money. Given [[https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/20/17130056/telltale-games-developer-layoffs-toxic-video-game-industry reports]] of a toxic work environment and culture at the company as it grew from an indie upstart to a behemoth - and [[PrideBeforeAFall came crashing back down]] - it's perhaps no surprise that the studio's management didn't exactly have its hand firmly on the wheel.
to:
* There was [[DeathOfAThousandCuts never one single]] CreatorKiller for Creator/TelltaleGames. Instead, according to [[https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/09/22/telltale-closure-the-walking-dead-minecraft-batman/ insider accounts,]] after their BreakthroughHit with ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSeasonOne'', every ''every single game they made made'' with the exception of ''VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode'' lost the studio money. Given [[https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/20/17130056/telltale-games-developer-layoffs-toxic-video-game-industry reports]] of a toxic work environment and culture at the company as it grew from an indie upstart to a behemoth - and [[PrideBeforeAFall came crashing back down]] - it's perhaps no surprise that the studio's management didn't exactly have its hand firmly on the wheel.
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I don't think Telltale was struggling financially prior to The Walking Dead; they were a mid-size studio making games with reasonable budgets that sold proportionally to their expectations
Changed line(s) 19,20 (click to see context) from:
* There was [[DeathOfAThousandCuts never one single]] CreatorKiller for Creator/TelltaleGames. Instead, according to [[https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/09/22/telltale-closure-the-walking-dead-minecraft-batman/ insider accounts,]] virtually ''every game they ever made'' save for ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSeasonOne'' (the studio's BreakthroughHit) and ''VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode'' lost the studio money. Given [[https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/20/17130056/telltale-games-developer-layoffs-toxic-video-game-industry reports]] of a toxic work environment and culture at the company as it grew from an indie upstart to a behemoth - and [[PrideBeforeAFall came crashing back down]] - it's perhaps no surprise that the studio's management didn't exactly have its hand firmly on the wheel.
** To make a long story short, Telltale grew eyes bigger than its belly after ''The Walking Dead'' blew up and singlehandedly turned around the studio's perilous finances. The small studio rapidly grew from less than 100 people to over 300, and started greenlighting games based on licensed properties left and right in hopes of making the lightning of ''The Walking Dead'' strike twice. However, the studio's culture remained stuck in an indie mindset that valued tribalism and buddy-buddy relationships over professionalism and open communication even as it entered the big leagues.
** To make a long story short, Telltale grew eyes bigger than its belly after ''The Walking Dead'' blew up and singlehandedly turned around the studio's perilous finances. The small studio rapidly grew from less than 100 people to over 300, and started greenlighting games based on licensed properties left and right in hopes of making the lightning of ''The Walking Dead'' strike twice. However, the studio's culture remained stuck in an indie mindset that valued tribalism and buddy-buddy relationships over professionalism and open communication even as it entered the big leagues.
to:
* There was [[DeathOfAThousandCuts never one single]] CreatorKiller for Creator/TelltaleGames. Instead, according to [[https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/09/22/telltale-closure-the-walking-dead-minecraft-batman/ insider accounts,]] virtually ''every after their BreakthroughHit with ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSeasonOne'', every game they ever made'' save for ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSeasonOne'' (the studio's BreakthroughHit) and made with the exception of ''VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode'' lost the studio money. Given [[https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/20/17130056/telltale-games-developer-layoffs-toxic-video-game-industry reports]] of a toxic work environment and culture at the company as it grew from an indie upstart to a behemoth - and [[PrideBeforeAFall came crashing back down]] - it's perhaps no surprise that the studio's management didn't exactly have its hand firmly on the wheel.
** To make a long story short, Telltale grew eyes bigger than its belly after ''The Walking Dead'' blew up andsinglehandedly turned around allowed them to grow out of their adventure game niche and enter the studio's perilous finances.mainstream. The small studio rapidly grew from less than 100 people to over 300, and started greenlighting games based on licensed properties left and right in hopes of making the lightning of ''The Walking Dead'' strike twice. However, the studio's culture remained stuck in an indie mindset that valued tribalism and buddy-buddy relationships over professionalism and open communication even as it entered the big leagues.
** To make a long story short, Telltale grew eyes bigger than its belly after ''The Walking Dead'' blew up and
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Changed line(s) 27 (click to see context) from:
** There is a happy ending to this story (for now): in 2019, LCG Entertainment acquired Telltale and most of their assets. So far, the revival is very much in-name-only (think THQ Nordic), and the new owners are not associated with the original company's management and seek to try and avoid the mistakes the old one made. While some games like ''The Walking Dead'' and the canceled ''Stranger Things'' game reverted back to their proper rights owners (though Skybound Games re-released an updated collection of the ''Walking Dead'' series with updated graphics and a ton of bonus features), a few properties like ''Batman'' and ''Fables'' have been retained. Aside from a re-release of the two ''Batman'' seasons, the first major release will be the long-awaited ''VideoGame/TheWolfAmongUs'' sequel set for release in 2023, followed by a game based on ''Series/TheExpanse'' sometime afterwards.
to:
** There is a happy ending to this story (for now): in 2019, LCG Entertainment acquired Telltale and most of their assets. So far, the revival is very much in-name-only (think THQ Nordic), and the new owners are not associated with the original company's management and seek to try and avoid the mistakes the old one made. While some games like ''The Walking Dead'' and the canceled ''Stranger Things'' game reverted back to their proper rights owners (though Skybound Games re-released an updated collection of the ''Walking Dead'' series with updated graphics and a ton of bonus features), a few properties like ''Batman'' and ''Fables'' have been retained. Aside from a re-release of the two ''Batman'' seasons, the first major release will be is a game based on ''Series/TheExpanse'' set for release in 2023, followed by the long-awaited ''VideoGame/TheWolfAmongUs'' sequel set for release in 2023, followed by a game based on ''Series/TheExpanse'' sometime afterwards.in 2024.
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Changed line(s) 21,23 (click to see context) from:
** The inevitable consequence of Telltale's indie mentality running head-first into its emergence as a major studio was that quality control suffered as camaraderie broke down. Developers were cycled around various projects willy-nilly, especially when a game was under a tight deadline and management simply threw more developers at it to get it out the door; one former employee described this as trying to get nine women to bring a baby to term in just one month. Crunch time, of course, also existed, but whereas most studios restrict it to the final few months of a game's development as they scramble to finish it, former Telltale employees describe workdays of 14-18 hours as near-constant thanks to the episodic nature of Telltale's games; there was always a project that was approaching completion. Burnout was inevitable, especially given that salaries were reportedly lower than at rival studios (bad news given the sky-high housing prices in Silicon Valley), and the studio burned through talent at a rapid rate. The poor resource management also led to some projects getting understaffed. For example, it is known that Telltale's management prioritised ''[[VideoGame/GameOfThronesTelltale Game of Thrones]]'' over ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands''; the latter's famous "finger gun shootout" in Episode 4 came about because the developers didn't have the time or resources to do a proper action scene, and Episode 5 was reportedly made with a skeleton crew so Telltale could complete the game and move on.
** The studio's issues with retaining talent caused further problems - since Telltale continued using their own internal game engine instead of anything industry-standard, each round of hires would then involve training new people to use their toolset all over again. This meant that each person who quit could potentially leave a team short on developers for weeks, if not ''months''. Telltale eventually decided to move over to Unity for their cancelled ''Series/StrangerThings'' game to make new hires easier, but by that point it was too late.
** Most of the blame for Telltale's deterioration goes to co-founder Kevin Bruner, who wanted to be seen as the driving creative force behind Telltale's games. When ''The Walking Dead'' became a hit and most of the credit for it went to project leads and co-creators Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin, Bruner did not take it well - he saw the game as ''his'' baby and the product of ''his'' company, and the resulting fights between him and Vanaman and Rodkin led them to leave Telltale and start Campo Santo Productions. The success of Campo Santo's ''VideoGame/{{Firewatch}}'', as well as of Night School Studio (co-founded by former Telltale dev Adam Hines) and its game ''VideoGame/{{Oxenfree}}'', drove Bruner to [[ExecutiveMeddling take a far more direct creative role]] in development, fearing that allowing anybody else to take the spotlight would give them the clout to run off and [[StartMyOwn start their own studios]] like Vanaman, Rodkin, and Hines before them. Former employees describe Bruner as a "creative bottleneck" who micromanaged games in order to leave his mark on them, belittled those who disagreed with his decisions, and left the studio creatively stagnant as he came to favor certain story beats and narrative structures (often those [[RecycledScript lifted from]] ''The Walking Dead'' Season 1), especially after he [[TyrantTakesTheHelm took over as CEO]] from Dan Connors in 2015. By the time he left in March 2017, the writing was already on the wall.
** The studio's issues with retaining talent caused further problems - since Telltale continued using their own internal game engine instead of anything industry-standard, each round of hires would then involve training new people to use their toolset all over again. This meant that each person who quit could potentially leave a team short on developers for weeks, if not ''months''. Telltale eventually decided to move over to Unity for their cancelled ''Series/StrangerThings'' game to make new hires easier, but by that point it was too late.
** Most of the blame for Telltale's deterioration goes to co-founder Kevin Bruner, who wanted to be seen as the driving creative force behind Telltale's games. When ''The Walking Dead'' became a hit and most of the credit for it went to project leads and co-creators Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin, Bruner did not take it well - he saw the game as ''his'' baby and the product of ''his'' company, and the resulting fights between him and Vanaman and Rodkin led them to leave Telltale and start Campo Santo Productions. The success of Campo Santo's ''VideoGame/{{Firewatch}}'', as well as of Night School Studio (co-founded by former Telltale dev Adam Hines) and its game ''VideoGame/{{Oxenfree}}'', drove Bruner to [[ExecutiveMeddling take a far more direct creative role]] in development, fearing that allowing anybody else to take the spotlight would give them the clout to run off and [[StartMyOwn start their own studios]] like Vanaman, Rodkin, and Hines before them. Former employees describe Bruner as a "creative bottleneck" who micromanaged games in order to leave his mark on them, belittled those who disagreed with his decisions, and left the studio creatively stagnant as he came to favor certain story beats and narrative structures (often those [[RecycledScript lifted from]] ''The Walking Dead'' Season 1), especially after he [[TyrantTakesTheHelm took over as CEO]] from Dan Connors in 2015. By the time he left in March 2017, the writing was already on the wall.
to:
** The inevitable consequence of Telltale's indie mentality running head-first into its emergence as a major studio was that quality control suffered as camaraderie broke down. Developers were cycled around various projects willy-nilly, especially when a game was under a tight deadline and management simply threw more developers at it to get it out the door; one door. One former employee described this the situation as trying to get nine women to bring a baby to term in just one month. Crunch time, of course, also existed, but whereas most studios restrict it to the final few months of a game's development as they scramble to finish it, former Telltale employees describe workdays of 14-18 hours as near-constant thanks to the episodic nature of Telltale's games; games meaning that there was always a project that was approaching completion. Burnout was inevitable, especially given that salaries were reportedly lower than at rival studios (bad news given the sky-high housing prices in Silicon Valley), and the studio burned through talent at a rapid rate. rate.
** The poor resource management also led to some projects getting understaffed. For example, it is known that Telltale's management prioritised ''[[VideoGame/GameOfThronesTelltale Game of Thrones]]'' over''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands''; the ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands''. The latter's famous "finger gun shootout" in Episode 4 came about because the developers didn't have the time or resources to do a proper action scene, and Episode 5 was reportedly made with a skeleton crew so Telltale could [[CreatorsApathy complete the game and move on.
on]].
** The studio's issues with retaining talent caused furtherproblems - since problems. Since Telltale continued using their own internal game engine instead of anything industry-standard, each round of hires would then involve training new people to use their toolset all over again. This meant that each person who quit could potentially leave a team short on developers for weeks, if not ''months''. Telltale eventually decided to move over to Unity UsefulNotes/{{Unity}} for their cancelled ''Series/StrangerThings'' game to make new hires easier, but by that point it was too late.
** Most of the blame for Telltale's deterioration goes to co-founder Kevin Bruner, who wanted to be seen as the driving creative force behind Telltale's games. When ''The Walking Dead'' became a hit and most of the credit for it went to project leads and co-creators Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin,Bruner did not take it well - he Bruner, who saw the game as ''his'' baby and the product of ''his'' company, and the did not take it well. The resulting fights between him and Vanaman and Rodkin led them to leave Telltale and start Campo Santo Productions. The success of Campo Santo's ''VideoGame/{{Firewatch}}'', as well as that of Night School Studio (co-founded by former Telltale dev Adam Hines) and its game ''VideoGame/{{Oxenfree}}'', drove Bruner to [[ExecutiveMeddling take a far more direct creative role]] in development, fearing that allowing anybody else to take the spotlight would give them the clout to run off and [[StartMyOwn start their own studios]] like Vanaman, Rodkin, and Hines before them. Former employees describe Bruner as a "creative bottleneck" who micromanaged games in order to leave his mark on them, belittled those who disagreed with his decisions, and left the studio creatively stagnant as he came to favor certain story beats and narrative structures (often those [[RecycledScript lifted from]] ''The Walking Dead'' Dead: Season 1), One''), especially after he [[TyrantTakesTheHelm took over as CEO]] from Dan Connors in 2015. By the time he left in March 2017, the writing was already on the wall.
** The poor resource management also led to some projects getting understaffed. For example, it is known that Telltale's management prioritised ''[[VideoGame/GameOfThronesTelltale Game of Thrones]]'' over
** The studio's issues with retaining talent caused further
** Most of the blame for Telltale's deterioration goes to co-founder Kevin Bruner, who wanted to be seen as the driving creative force behind Telltale's games. When ''The Walking Dead'' became a hit and most of the credit for it went to project leads and co-creators Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin,
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Changed line(s) 19 (click to see context) from:
* There was [[DeathOfAThousandCuts never one single]] CreatorKiller for Creator/TelltaleGames; instead, according to [[https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/09/22/telltale-closure-the-walking-dead-minecraft-batman/ insider accounts]], virtually ''every game they ever made'' save for ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSeasonOne'' (the studio's BreakthroughHit) and ''VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode'' lost the studio money. Given [[https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/20/17130056/telltale-games-developer-layoffs-toxic-video-game-industry reports]] of a toxic work environment and culture at the company as it grew from an indie upstart to a behemoth - and [[PrideBeforeAFall came crashing back down]] - it's perhaps no surprise that the studio's management didn't exactly have its hand firmly on the wheel.
to:
* There was [[DeathOfAThousandCuts never one single]] CreatorKiller for Creator/TelltaleGames; instead, Creator/TelltaleGames. Instead, according to [[https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/09/22/telltale-closure-the-walking-dead-minecraft-batman/ insider accounts]], accounts,]] virtually ''every game they ever made'' save for ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSeasonOne'' (the studio's BreakthroughHit) and ''VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode'' lost the studio money. Given [[https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/20/17130056/telltale-games-developer-layoffs-toxic-video-game-industry reports]] of a toxic work environment and culture at the company as it grew from an indie upstart to a behemoth - and [[PrideBeforeAFall came crashing back down]] - it's perhaps no surprise that the studio's management didn't exactly have its hand firmly on the wheel.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 16 (click to see context) from:
** The making of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Duckman}}'' game was delayed by a dispute with the titular charactet's voice actor Creator/JasonAlexander, who demanded an unreasonably high price (for the publisher) because the game had about three seasons' worth of voice acting and the strain of speaking like a duck risked damaging his throat. When Illusions ended up hiring a [[Creator/MichaelJGough voice-double]], the show got axed because of power struggles between Viacom top management. The game was allowed to be finished, but suffered great budget cuts.
to:
** The making of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Duckman}}'' game was delayed by a dispute with the titular charactet's character's voice actor Creator/JasonAlexander, who demanded an unreasonably high price (for the publisher) because the game had about three seasons' worth of voice acting and the strain of speaking like a duck risked damaging his throat. When Illusions ended up hiring a [[Creator/MichaelJGough voice-double]], the show got axed because of power struggles between Viacom top management. The game was allowed to be finished, but suffered great budget cuts.
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None
Changed line(s) 1 (click to see context) from:
%% NOTE: Real life examples only. In-universe examples go on TroubledProduction/FictionalExamples.
to:
%% NOTE: Real life Real-life examples only. In-universe examples go on TroubledProduction/FictionalExamples.
Changed line(s) 3,4 (click to see context) from:
-->-- '''[[{{Woolseyism}} Ted Woolsey]]''' on [[VideoGame/SecretOfMana cramming a 32-bit CD onto a 16-bit cartridge]]
to:
Changed line(s) 14,19 (click to see context) from:
* The article ''[[http://web.archive.org/web/20070620223400/https://www.gamespot.com/features/disillusioned/index.html Dis-Illusioned! How a Great License Killed a Small Developer]]'' lists the things that went wrong with developing licensed adventures at The Illusions Gaming Company, which expected to greatly cut development costs by using established characters, established designs and available teams of voice actors as seen by developers. It seemed to work well with the two ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo Mystery'' adventures. But then...
** ''WesternAnimation/TheBrothersGrunt'' was expected to become the next ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' and the studio invested a lot in the game. The game was nice (or so the authors say), and the kids loved it, until they heard the title and realized what the game was actually based on. Afterwards, they wouldn't touch it.
** The making of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Duckman}}'' game was delayed by a dispute with the voice actor Creator/JasonAlexander, who demanded an unreasonably high price (for the publisher), because the game had about three seasons worth of voice acting, and the strain of speaking like a duck risked damaging his throat. When Illusions ended up hiring a [[Creator/MichaelJGough voice-double]], the show got axed because of power struggles between Viacom top management. The game was allowed to be finished, but suffered great budget cuts.
** ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead Do U'' was going to have some great puzzles (or so the authors say), which had to be cut, because "Beavis and Butthead are too stupid to think of that". Again, there was the problem of voice acting: the license demanded to hire the show's voice actor Creator/MikeJudge with the same billing he got at the show's peak popularity, but the game's budget would only allow him to record approximately half the game's dialogue. The publisher suggested a low-budget solution -- recycling the lines from the show's audio track and from the previous games. All Illusions staff spent a week and a half trying to piece together this jigsaw puzzle of scripts and ended up replacing most jokes with just giggles. After that, the studio founders deemed their business model too unrewarding and shut down.
* There was [[DeathOfAThousandCuts never one single]] CreatorKiller for Creator/TelltaleGames; instead, according to [[https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/09/22/telltale-closure-the-walking-dead-minecraft-batman/ insider accounts]], virtually ''every game they ever made'', save for ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSeasonOne'' (the studio's BreakthroughHit) and ''VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode'', lost the studio money. Given [[https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/20/17130056/telltale-games-developer-layoffs-toxic-video-game-industry reports]] of a toxic work environment and culture at the company as it grew from an indie upstart to a behemoth -- and [[PrideBeforeAFall came crashing back down]] -- it's perhaps no surprise that the studio's management didn't exactly have its hand firmly on the wheel.
** To make a long story short, Telltale grew eyes bigger than its belly after ''The Walking Dead'' blew up and singlehandedly turned around the studio's perilous finances. The small studio rapidly grew from fewer than a hundred people to over three hundred, and started greenlighting games based on licensed properties left and right in hopes of making the lightning of ''The Walking Dead'' strike twice. However, the studio's culture remained stuck an indie mindset that valued tribalism and buddy-buddy relationships over professionalism and open communication even as it entered the big leagues.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheBrothersGrunt'' was expected to become the next ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' and the studio invested a lot in the game. The game was nice (or so the authors say), and the kids loved it, until they heard the title and realized what the game was actually based on. Afterwards, they wouldn't touch it.
** The making of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Duckman}}'' game was delayed by a dispute with the voice actor Creator/JasonAlexander, who demanded an unreasonably high price (for the publisher), because the game had about three seasons worth of voice acting, and the strain of speaking like a duck risked damaging his throat. When Illusions ended up hiring a [[Creator/MichaelJGough voice-double]], the show got axed because of power struggles between Viacom top management. The game was allowed to be finished, but suffered great budget cuts.
** ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead Do U'' was going to have some great puzzles (or so the authors say), which had to be cut, because "Beavis and Butthead are too stupid to think of that". Again, there was the problem of voice acting: the license demanded to hire the show's voice actor Creator/MikeJudge with the same billing he got at the show's peak popularity, but the game's budget would only allow him to record approximately half the game's dialogue. The publisher suggested a low-budget solution -- recycling the lines from the show's audio track and from the previous games. All Illusions staff spent a week and a half trying to piece together this jigsaw puzzle of scripts and ended up replacing most jokes with just giggles. After that, the studio founders deemed their business model too unrewarding and shut down.
* There was [[DeathOfAThousandCuts never one single]] CreatorKiller for Creator/TelltaleGames; instead, according to [[https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/09/22/telltale-closure-the-walking-dead-minecraft-batman/ insider accounts]], virtually ''every game they ever made'', save for ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSeasonOne'' (the studio's BreakthroughHit) and ''VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode'', lost the studio money. Given [[https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/20/17130056/telltale-games-developer-layoffs-toxic-video-game-industry reports]] of a toxic work environment and culture at the company as it grew from an indie upstart to a behemoth -- and [[PrideBeforeAFall came crashing back down]] -- it's perhaps no surprise that the studio's management didn't exactly have its hand firmly on the wheel.
** To make a long story short, Telltale grew eyes bigger than its belly after ''The Walking Dead'' blew up and singlehandedly turned around the studio's perilous finances. The small studio rapidly grew from fewer than a hundred people to over three hundred, and started greenlighting games based on licensed properties left and right in hopes of making the lightning of ''The Walking Dead'' strike twice. However, the studio's culture remained stuck an indie mindset that valued tribalism and buddy-buddy relationships over professionalism and open communication even as it entered the big leagues.
to:
* The article ''[[http://web.archive.org/web/20070620223400/https://www.gamespot.com/features/disillusioned/index.html Dis-Illusioned! How a Great License Killed a Small Developer]]'' lists the things that went wrong with developing licensed adventures at The Illusions Gaming Company, which expected to greatly cut development costs by using established characters, established designs designs, and available teams of voice actors as seen by developers. It seemed to work well with the two Genesis version of ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo Mystery'' adventures.Mystery''. But then...
** ''WesternAnimation/TheBrothersGrunt'' was expected to become the next''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'', and the studio invested a lot in the game. The game was nice (or so the authors say), and the kids loved it, until they heard the title and realized what the game was actually based on. Afterwards, they wouldn't touch it.
** The making of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Duckman}}'' game was delayed by a dispute with the titular charactet's voice actor Creator/JasonAlexander, who demanded an unreasonably high price (for thepublisher), publisher) because the game had about three seasons seasons' worth of voice acting, acting and the strain of speaking like a duck risked damaging his throat. When Illusions ended up hiring a [[Creator/MichaelJGough voice-double]], the show got axed because of power struggles between Viacom top management. The game was allowed to be finished, but suffered great budget cuts.
** ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead Do U'' was going to have some great puzzles (or so the authors say), which had to becut, cut because "Beavis and Butthead are too stupid to think of that". Again, there was the problem of voice acting: the license licensor demanded to that Illusions hire the show's duo's voice actor Creator/MikeJudge with the same billing he got at the show's peak popularity, but the game's budget would only allow him to record approximately half the game's dialogue. The publisher suggested a low-budget solution -- - recycling the lines from the show's audio track and from the previous games. All Illusions staff spent a week and a half trying to piece together this jigsaw puzzle of scripts and ended up replacing most jokes with just giggles. After that, the studio founders deemed their business model too unrewarding and shut down.
* There was [[DeathOfAThousandCuts never one single]] CreatorKiller for Creator/TelltaleGames; instead, according to [[https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/09/22/telltale-closure-the-walking-dead-minecraft-batman/ insider accounts]], virtually ''every game they evermade'', made'' save for ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSeasonOne'' (the studio's BreakthroughHit) and ''VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode'', ''VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode'' lost the studio money. Given [[https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/20/17130056/telltale-games-developer-layoffs-toxic-video-game-industry reports]] of a toxic work environment and culture at the company as it grew from an indie upstart to a behemoth -- - and [[PrideBeforeAFall came crashing back down]] -- - it's perhaps no surprise that the studio's management didn't exactly have its hand firmly on the wheel.
** To make a long story short, Telltale grew eyes bigger than its belly after ''The Walking Dead'' blew up and singlehandedly turned around the studio's perilous finances. The small studio rapidly grew fromfewer less than a hundred 100 people to over three hundred, 300, and started greenlighting games based on licensed properties left and right in hopes of making the lightning of ''The Walking Dead'' strike twice. However, the studio's culture remained stuck in an indie mindset that valued tribalism and buddy-buddy relationships over professionalism and open communication even as it entered the big leagues.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheBrothersGrunt'' was expected to become the next
** The making of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Duckman}}'' game was delayed by a dispute with the titular charactet's voice actor Creator/JasonAlexander, who demanded an unreasonably high price (for the
** ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead Do U'' was going to have some great puzzles (or so the authors say), which had to be
* There was [[DeathOfAThousandCuts never one single]] CreatorKiller for Creator/TelltaleGames; instead, according to [[https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/09/22/telltale-closure-the-walking-dead-minecraft-batman/ insider accounts]], virtually ''every game they ever
** To make a long story short, Telltale grew eyes bigger than its belly after ''The Walking Dead'' blew up and singlehandedly turned around the studio's perilous finances. The small studio rapidly grew from
Changed line(s) 21,22 (click to see context) from:
** The studio's issues with retaining talent caused further problems - since Telltale continued using their own internal game engine instead of anything industry-standard, each round of hires would then involve training new people to use their toolset all over again. This meant that each person who quit could potentially leave a team short on developers for weeks, if not ''months''. Telltale eventually decided to move over to Unity for their cancelled ''Series/StrangerThings'' game to make new hires easier, but by that point, it was too late.
** Most of the blame for Telltale's deterioration goes to co-founder Kevin Bruner, who wanted to be seen as the driving creative force behind Telltale's games. When ''The Walking Dead'' became a hit and most of the credit for it went to project leads and co-creators Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin, Bruner did not take it well, as he saw the game as his baby and the product of his company, and the resulting fights between him and Vanaman and Rodkin led them to leave Telltale and start Campo Santo Productions. The success of Campo Santo's ''VideoGame/{{Firewatch}}'', as well as of Night School Studio (co-founded by former Telltale dev Adam Hines) and its game ''VideoGame/{{Oxenfree}}'', drove Bruner to [[ExecutiveMeddling take a far more direct creative role]] in development, fearing that allowing anybody else to take the spotlight would give them the clout to run off and [[StartMyOwn start their own studios]] like Vanaman, Rodkin, and Hines before them. Former employees describe Bruner as a "creative bottleneck" who micromanaged games in order to leave his mark on them, belittled those who disagreed with his decisions, and left the studio creatively stagnant as he came to favor certain story beats and narrative structures (often those [[RecycledScript lifted from]] ''The Walking Dead'' season one), especially after he [[TyrantTakesTheHelm took over as CEO]] from Dan Connors in 2015. By the time he left in March 2017, the writing was already on the wall.
** Most of the blame for Telltale's deterioration goes to co-founder Kevin Bruner, who wanted to be seen as the driving creative force behind Telltale's games. When ''The Walking Dead'' became a hit and most of the credit for it went to project leads and co-creators Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin, Bruner did not take it well, as he saw the game as his baby and the product of his company, and the resulting fights between him and Vanaman and Rodkin led them to leave Telltale and start Campo Santo Productions. The success of Campo Santo's ''VideoGame/{{Firewatch}}'', as well as of Night School Studio (co-founded by former Telltale dev Adam Hines) and its game ''VideoGame/{{Oxenfree}}'', drove Bruner to [[ExecutiveMeddling take a far more direct creative role]] in development, fearing that allowing anybody else to take the spotlight would give them the clout to run off and [[StartMyOwn start their own studios]] like Vanaman, Rodkin, and Hines before them. Former employees describe Bruner as a "creative bottleneck" who micromanaged games in order to leave his mark on them, belittled those who disagreed with his decisions, and left the studio creatively stagnant as he came to favor certain story beats and narrative structures (often those [[RecycledScript lifted from]] ''The Walking Dead'' season one), especially after he [[TyrantTakesTheHelm took over as CEO]] from Dan Connors in 2015. By the time he left in March 2017, the writing was already on the wall.
to:
** The studio's issues with retaining talent caused further problems - since Telltale continued using their own internal game engine instead of anything industry-standard, each round of hires would then involve training new people to use their toolset all over again. This meant that each person who quit could potentially leave a team short on developers for weeks, if not ''months''. Telltale eventually decided to move over to Unity for their cancelled ''Series/StrangerThings'' game to make new hires easier, but by that point, point it was too late.
** Most of the blame for Telltale's deterioration goes to co-founder Kevin Bruner, who wanted to be seen as the driving creative force behind Telltale's games. When ''The Walking Dead'' became a hit and most of the credit for it went to project leads and co-creators Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin, Bruner did not take itwell, as well - he saw the game as his ''his'' baby and the product of his ''his'' company, and the resulting fights between him and Vanaman and Rodkin led them to leave Telltale and start Campo Santo Productions. The success of Campo Santo's ''VideoGame/{{Firewatch}}'', as well as of Night School Studio (co-founded by former Telltale dev Adam Hines) and its game ''VideoGame/{{Oxenfree}}'', drove Bruner to [[ExecutiveMeddling take a far more direct creative role]] in development, fearing that allowing anybody else to take the spotlight would give them the clout to run off and [[StartMyOwn start their own studios]] like Vanaman, Rodkin, and Hines before them. Former employees describe Bruner as a "creative bottleneck" who micromanaged games in order to leave his mark on them, belittled those who disagreed with his decisions, and left the studio creatively stagnant as he came to favor certain story beats and narrative structures (often those [[RecycledScript lifted from]] ''The Walking Dead'' season one), Season 1), especially after he [[TyrantTakesTheHelm took over as CEO]] from Dan Connors in 2015. By the time he left in March 2017, the writing was already on the wall.
** Most of the blame for Telltale's deterioration goes to co-founder Kevin Bruner, who wanted to be seen as the driving creative force behind Telltale's games. When ''The Walking Dead'' became a hit and most of the credit for it went to project leads and co-creators Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin, Bruner did not take it
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** While conditions improved somewhat after Bruner's departure, the announcement of new CEO Phil Hawley (formerly of Zynga, where he had overseen widespread layoffs) in September 2017 immediately raised alarms, and for good reason: within two months of his arrival, Telltale had fired a quarter of its workforce. Most of the rest would go in September 2018, at which point Telltale announced it would cease production on all new games except for ''Minecraft: Story Mode'' season two (out of contractual obligation with Creator/{{Netflix}}, which commissioned the game). This news [[https://kotaku.com/telltale-employees-left-stunned-by-company-closure-no-1829272139 came as a shock]] to employees, especially given that none of them received severance pay, leaving many of them bitter and frustrated with management. Within days, former employees filed a [[https://www.polygon.com/2018/9/25/17901106/telltale-layoffs-lawsuit-warn-act class-action lawsuit]] against Telltale for violating the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, mandating sixty days of advance notice in the event of a mass layoff, and California's more stringent version of the same.
** There is a happy ending to this story (for now): in 2019, LCG Entertainment acquired TTG and most of their assets. So far, the revival is very much in name-only (think THQ Nordic), and the new owners are not associated with the original company's management and seek to try and avoid the mistakes the old one made. While some games like The Walking Dead and a canceled ''Series/StrangerThings'' game reverted back to their proper rights owners (though Skybound Games re-released an updated collection of the Walking Dead series with updated graphics and a ton of bonus features), a few properties like ''Batman'' and ''Fables'' have been retained. Aside from a re-release of the 2 ''Batman'' seasons, the first major release will be the long-awaited ''VideoGame/TheWolfAmongUs'' sequel set for release in 2023, followed by a game based on ''Series/TheExpanse'' sometime afterwards. Time will tell, no pun intended, if the new incarnation will avoid the pitfalls of the original.
** There is a happy ending to this story (for now): in 2019, LCG Entertainment acquired TTG and most of their assets. So far, the revival is very much in name-only (think THQ Nordic), and the new owners are not associated with the original company's management and seek to try and avoid the mistakes the old one made. While some games like The Walking Dead and a canceled ''Series/StrangerThings'' game reverted back to their proper rights owners (though Skybound Games re-released an updated collection of the Walking Dead series with updated graphics and a ton of bonus features), a few properties like ''Batman'' and ''Fables'' have been retained. Aside from a re-release of the 2 ''Batman'' seasons, the first major release will be the long-awaited ''VideoGame/TheWolfAmongUs'' sequel set for release in 2023, followed by a game based on ''Series/TheExpanse'' sometime afterwards. Time will tell, no pun intended, if the new incarnation will avoid the pitfalls of the original.
to:
** While conditions improved somewhat after Bruner's departure, the announcement of new CEO Phil Hawley (formerly of Zynga, where he had overseen widespread layoffs) in September 2017 immediately raised alarms, and for good reason: within two months of his arrival, Telltale had fired a quarter of its workforce. Most of the rest would go in September 2018, at which point Telltale announced it would cease production on all new games except for ''Minecraft: Story Mode'' season two Season 2 (out of contractual obligation with Creator/{{Netflix}}, which commissioned the game). This news [[https://kotaku.com/telltale-employees-left-stunned-by-company-closure-no-1829272139 came as a shock]] to employees, especially given that none of them received severance pay, leaving many of them bitter and frustrated with management. Within days, former employees filed a [[https://www.polygon.com/2018/9/25/17901106/telltale-layoffs-lawsuit-warn-act class-action lawsuit]] against Telltale for violating the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, mandating sixty 60 days of advance notice in the event of a mass layoff, and California's more stringent version of the same.
** There is a happy ending to this story (for now): in 2019, LCG Entertainment acquiredTTG Telltale and most of their assets. So far, the revival is very much in name-only in-name-only (think THQ Nordic), and the new owners are not associated with the original company's management and seek to try and avoid the mistakes the old one made. While some games like The ''The Walking Dead Dead'' and a the canceled ''Series/StrangerThings'' ''Stranger Things'' game reverted back to their proper rights owners (though Skybound Games re-released an updated collection of the Walking Dead ''Walking Dead'' series with updated graphics and a ton of bonus features), a few properties like ''Batman'' and ''Fables'' have been retained. Aside from a re-release of the 2 two ''Batman'' seasons, the first major release will be the long-awaited ''VideoGame/TheWolfAmongUs'' sequel set for release in 2023, followed by a game based on ''Series/TheExpanse'' sometime afterwards. Time will tell, no pun intended, if the new incarnation will avoid the pitfalls of the original.afterwards.
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** There is a happy ending to this story (for now): in 2019, LCG Entertainment acquired
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** The inevitable consequence of Telltale's indie mentality running head-first into its emergence as a major studio was that quality control suffered as camaraderie broke down. Developers were cycled around various projects willy-nilly, especially when a game was under a tight deadline and management simply threw more developers at it to get it out the door; one former employee described this as trying to get nine women to bring a baby to term in just one month. Crunch time, of course, also existed, but whereas most studios restrict it to the final few months of a game's development as they scramble to finish it, former Telltale employees describe workdays of 14-18 hours as near-constant thanks to the episodic nature of Telltale's games; there was always a project that was approaching completion. Burnout was inevitable, especially given that salaries were reportedly lower than at rival studios (bad news given the sky-high housing prices in Silicon Valley), and the studio burned through talent at a rapid rate. The poor resource management also led to some projects getting understaffed. For example it is known that Telltale's management prioritised ''[[VideoGame/GameOfThronesTelltale Game of Thrones]]'' over ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands''; the latter's famous "finger gun shootout" in Episode 4 came about because the developers didn't have the time or resources to do a proper action scene, and Episode 5 was reportedly made with a skeleton crew just to get the game finished off.
to:
** The inevitable consequence of Telltale's indie mentality running head-first into its emergence as a major studio was that quality control suffered as camaraderie broke down. Developers were cycled around various projects willy-nilly, especially when a game was under a tight deadline and management simply threw more developers at it to get it out the door; one former employee described this as trying to get nine women to bring a baby to term in just one month. Crunch time, of course, also existed, but whereas most studios restrict it to the final few months of a game's development as they scramble to finish it, former Telltale employees describe workdays of 14-18 hours as near-constant thanks to the episodic nature of Telltale's games; there was always a project that was approaching completion. Burnout was inevitable, especially given that salaries were reportedly lower than at rival studios (bad news given the sky-high housing prices in Silicon Valley), and the studio burned through talent at a rapid rate. The poor resource management also led to some projects getting understaffed. For example example, it is known that Telltale's management prioritised ''[[VideoGame/GameOfThronesTelltale Game of Thrones]]'' over ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands''; the latter's famous "finger gun shootout" in Episode 4 came about because the developers didn't have the time or resources to do a proper action scene, and Episode 5 was reportedly made with a skeleton crew just to get so Telltale could complete the game finished off.and move on.
